Unions sometimes attempt to impose limitations upon the right of a member to resign. However, a decision of the Supreme Court in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209 (1977), a Foundation-supported lawsuit, makes clear that you cannot constitutionally be prevented from resigning from your union. Some states, but not all, also have statutes that guarantee educators the right to resign at any time. (Note: Members of the National Education association (NEA) may have signed membership applications in which they agree to a limit on when they can resign. It is not settled whether those agreements are lawful.) If you work in a Right to Work state, or neither state law nor the contract between your employer and the union contains a provision requiring you to join the union or pay union fees, after resigning you have no obligations whatsoever to the union. (However, if you have signed a dues deduction authorization, that authorization may contain a limitation on when it can be revoked.) If you work in a non-Right to Work state and state law or the contract does contain a provision requiring you to join the union or pay union fees, after resigning you would still have to pay union fees (generally called “agency fees”). As a nonmember, you would have a right to object to the amount of the agency fees and obtain a reduction of your compulsory payments so that they do not include the part of dues that is used for purposes other than collective bargaining and contract administration. The decision to resign is yours alone. In addition to the reduction in your financial obligations to the union, as a nonmember you would not be subject to union rules and discipline. The union would have to continue to represent you fairly and without discrimination in all matters subject to collective bargaining, and you could not be denied any benefits under the labor contract with your employer because of nonmembership. On the other hand, you would not have the right to vote on ratification of the contract or election of union officers, and there may be benefits provided under the union’s constitution or bylaws that are not available to nonmembers (however, a nonmember cannot be charged a share of the costs of member-only benefits). A note on liability insurance. Most insurances — from liability to supplemental income — the NEA provides its members can be secured from alternative sources. Both the Association of American Educators, 25909 Pala Place, Suite 330, Mission Viejo, CA 92691 (1-800-704-7799), www.aaeteachers.org, and the Christian Educators Association International, PO Box 45610, Westlake, OH 44145 (1-888-798-1124), www.ceai.org, offer their members a million dollar liability policy and other insurances that match or exceed the policies offered by the NEA to its members. Teachers may also want to check with their school employer. Most schools carry or provide liability coverage for their teacher employees. Even the NEA Today (10-94), admitted that “your school district should provide you with primary coverage.” If not, some homeowners or renters insurance may allow their clients to add a liability clause to their policy for a nominal fee. NEA’s Educators Employment Liability Policy only kicks in after any insurance available through the school district, does not cover intentional wrong-doing, and limits coverage in civil rights cases to $250,000.00, instead of the advertised $1 million. NEA Today (04-93). If you would like to see a sample union resignation letter for non-Right to Work states where state law or the contract requires you to join the union or pay union fees, click here. If you would like to see a sample union resignation letter for a Right to Work state, or where neither state law nor the contract requires you to join the union or pay union fees, click here. If you are a teacher (K-12) who works in California and are represented by the CTA, click here. You should check your union’s constitution and by-laws to see if they specify to whom a resignation must be sent. Although you may wish to include in your objection letter the line that says your objection is continuing and permanent, some unions will not honor this and will make you annually renew your objections. The courts have issued inconsistent decisions on this point.